This chapter describes the author's teaching of valuable lessons about the historical uses of ritual that often do not appear in courses — for example, how Shintō symbolism could turn the Japanese ...
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This chapter describes the author's teaching of valuable lessons about the historical uses of ritual that often do not appear in courses — for example, how Shintō symbolism could turn the Japanese emperor into a deity, evoking obedience and reverence from all his subjects. The chapter's author's course on Buddhism also stresses the role of ritual in propping up political power, which is demonstrated through an analysis of the ritual recitation of the Heart Sutra.Less

Teaching Ritual Propriety and Authority through Japanese Religions

John Nelson

Published in print: 2007-08-01

This chapter describes the author's teaching of valuable lessons about the historical uses of ritual that often do not appear in courses — for example, how Shintō symbolism could turn the Japanese emperor into a deity, evoking obedience and reverence from all his subjects. The chapter's author's course on Buddhism also stresses the role of ritual in propping up political power, which is demonstrated through an analysis of the ritual recitation of the Heart Sutra.

Among the most exciting developments in the study of Japanese religion over the past two decades has been the discovery of tens of thousands of ritual vessels, implements, and scapegoat dolls ...
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Among the most exciting developments in the study of Japanese religion over the past two decades has been the discovery of tens of thousands of ritual vessels, implements, and scapegoat dolls (hitogata) from the Nara (710–784) and early Heian (794–1185) periods. Because inscriptions on many of the items are clearly derived from Chinese rites of spirit pacification, it is now evident that previous scholarship has mischaracterized the role of Buddhism in early Japanese religion. This book argues that both the Japanese royal system and the Japanese Buddhist tradition owe much to continental rituals centered on the manipulation of yin and yang, animal sacrifice, and spirit quelling. The book charts a transformation in the religious culture of the Japanese islands, tracing the transmission and development of fundamental paradigms of religious practice to immigrant lineages and deities from the Korean peninsula. It shows how the ability of immigrant lineages to propitiate hostile deities led to the creation of elaborate networks of temple–shrine complexes that shaped later sectarian Shinto as well as popular understandings of the relationship between the buddhas and the gods of Japan. The examination of a series of ancient Japanese legends of female immortals, weaving maidens, and shamanesses reveals that female deities played a key role in the moving of technologies and ritual practices from peripheral regions in Kyushu and elsewhere into central Japan and the heart of the imperial cult. As a result, some of the most important building blocks of the purportedly native Shinto tradition were shaped by the ancestral cults of immigrant lineages and popular Korean and Chinese religious practices.Less

Michael Como

Published in print: 2009-09-02

Among the most exciting developments in the study of Japanese religion over the past two decades has been the discovery of tens of thousands of ritual vessels, implements, and scapegoat dolls (hitogata) from the Nara (710–784) and early Heian (794–1185) periods. Because inscriptions on many of the items are clearly derived from Chinese rites of spirit pacification, it is now evident that previous scholarship has mischaracterized the role of Buddhism in early Japanese religion. This book argues that both the Japanese royal system and the Japanese Buddhist tradition owe much to continental rituals centered on the manipulation of yin and yang, animal sacrifice, and spirit quelling. The book charts a transformation in the religious culture of the Japanese islands, tracing the transmission and development of fundamental paradigms of religious practice to immigrant lineages and deities from the Korean peninsula. It shows how the ability of immigrant lineages to propitiate hostile deities led to the creation of elaborate networks of temple–shrine complexes that shaped later sectarian Shinto as well as popular understandings of the relationship between the buddhas and the gods of Japan. The examination of a series of ancient Japanese legends of female immortals, weaving maidens, and shamanesses reveals that female deities played a key role in the moving of technologies and ritual practices from peripheral regions in Kyushu and elsewhere into central Japan and the heart of the imperial cult. As a result, some of the most important building blocks of the purportedly native Shinto tradition were shaped by the ancestral cults of immigrant lineages and popular Korean and Chinese religious practices.

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a key figure in the introduction of Buddhism to the non-Asian world. Many outside Japan encountered Buddhism for the first time through D. T. Suzuki's writings and ...
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Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a key figure in the introduction of Buddhism to the non-Asian world. Many outside Japan encountered Buddhism for the first time through D. T. Suzuki's writings and teaching, and for nearly a century his work and legacy have contributed to the ongoing religious and cultural interchange between Japan and the rest of the world, particularly the United States and Europe. This third volume brings together a diverse collection of Suzuki's letters, essays, and lectures about non-Buddhist religions and his thoughts on their relation to Buddhism, as well as his reflections on the nature of religion itself. Some of these writings have been translated into English for the first time in this volume. As a long-term resident of the United States, a world traveler, and a voracious consumer of information about all forms of religion, Suzuki was one of the foremost Japanese mediators of Eastern and Western religious cultures for nearly seven decades. An introduction analyzes Suzuki's frequent encounters with texts and practitioners of many religions, considers how events in Suzuki's lifetime affected his interpretations of Christianity, Shinto, and other traditions, and demonstrates that his legacy as a scholar extends well beyond Buddhism.Less

Selected Works of D.T. Suzuki, Volume III : Comparative Religion

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki

Published in print: 2016-08-02

Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki was a key figure in the introduction of Buddhism to the non-Asian world. Many outside Japan encountered Buddhism for the first time through D. T. Suzuki's writings and teaching, and for nearly a century his work and legacy have contributed to the ongoing religious and cultural interchange between Japan and the rest of the world, particularly the United States and Europe. This third volume brings together a diverse collection of Suzuki's letters, essays, and lectures about non-Buddhist religions and his thoughts on their relation to Buddhism, as well as his reflections on the nature of religion itself. Some of these writings have been translated into English for the first time in this volume. As a long-term resident of the United States, a world traveler, and a voracious consumer of information about all forms of religion, Suzuki was one of the foremost Japanese mediators of Eastern and Western religious cultures for nearly seven decades. An introduction analyzes Suzuki's frequent encounters with texts and practitioners of many religions, considers how events in Suzuki's lifetime affected his interpretations of Christianity, Shinto, and other traditions, and demonstrates that his legacy as a scholar extends well beyond Buddhism.

The paradigmatic connection between Kokugaku and nativism is misleading and even wrong. In the humanities and the social sciences, nativism either describes anti-immigrant political movements or ...
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The paradigmatic connection between Kokugaku and nativism is misleading and even wrong. In the humanities and the social sciences, nativism either describes anti-immigrant political movements or reactions to colonial domination, and neither of these is relevant to the case of Kokugaku. Instead, ideas and events associated with sonnō-jō’i conform more closely to how the historiographical category of nativism is used outside of Japanese studies. At the same time, one of the salient characteristics of Kokugaku, the assertion of Japanese superiority, is reminiscent of what Americanists call exceptionalism, a concept that Japanologists heretofore have not applied to early modern Japan. Rather than focus on Kokugaku, thereby reinforcing the ideological connection between Kokugaku and the modern nation-state of Japan, which itself is inherently an exceptionalist connection, Like No Other: Exceptionalism and Nativism in Early Modern Japan focuses on the role of Confucianism in the development of exceptionalism during the early modern era. Even though the histories of early modern Japanese nativism and exceptionalism are distinct, they do overlap with one another during the 1850s and 1860s, indicating a connection between the two that Japanese history shares with the histories of other cultures and societies, including that of the United States.Less

Like No Other : Exceptionalism and Nativism in Early Modern Japan

Mark Thomas McNally

Published in print: 2015-12-31

The paradigmatic connection between Kokugaku and nativism is misleading and even wrong. In the humanities and the social sciences, nativism either describes anti-immigrant political movements or reactions to colonial domination, and neither of these is relevant to the case of Kokugaku. Instead, ideas and events associated with sonnō-jō’i conform more closely to how the historiographical category of nativism is used outside of Japanese studies. At the same time, one of the salient characteristics of Kokugaku, the assertion of Japanese superiority, is reminiscent of what Americanists call exceptionalism, a concept that Japanologists heretofore have not applied to early modern Japan. Rather than focus on Kokugaku, thereby reinforcing the ideological connection between Kokugaku and the modern nation-state of Japan, which itself is inherently an exceptionalist connection, Like No Other: Exceptionalism and Nativism in Early Modern Japan focuses on the role of Confucianism in the development of exceptionalism during the early modern era. Even though the histories of early modern Japanese nativism and exceptionalism are distinct, they do overlap with one another during the 1850s and 1860s, indicating a connection between the two that Japanese history shares with the histories of other cultures and societies, including that of the United States.

The third chapters examines the wide variety of shrines in Akasaka, including Sannō Hie Jinja, Toyokawa Inari, Nogi Jinja, and Hikawa Jinja, which are all dedicated to Inari, at least in part, ...
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The third chapters examines the wide variety of shrines in Akasaka, including Sannō Hie Jinja, Toyokawa Inari, Nogi Jinja, and Hikawa Jinja, which are all dedicated to Inari, at least in part, although each has its own distinctive areas of religious and cultural significance. The Yamanote neighborhood of Akasaka also contains the Aoyama Cemetery as well as dozens of smaller Buddhist temples, most of which function as graveyards while tucked away in alleys or street-side openings. When seen collectively as a network of sacred sites and associations in the social context of the High City, an examination of this area at once confirms and calls for a reassessment of the notion that Shinto exclusively represents rites for living and Buddhism only represents rites for dying. This chapter focuses attention on an underlying level of folk religiosity that sustains both institutional structures. This chapter weaves together a descriptive analysis of the historical and cultural background as well as contemporary functions and atmosphere of some of the main sacred sites in the neighborhood of Akasaka with a critical discussion of Japanese religious institutional structure. By examining a variety of shrines and temples that are prominent and not-so-prominent (but in their own way equally important for understanding the role of sacred space), this chapter explores the conundrum involving the particular type of religious pluralism whereby almost everyone in Japan considers themselves affiliated with both Buddhist and Shinto traditions, but very few acknowledge feeling much loyalty or commitment to a particular institution.Less

Akasaka in the High City: Born Shinto … Live Inari … Die Buddhist

Heine Steven

Published in print: 2011-12-02

The third chapters examines the wide variety of shrines in Akasaka, including Sannō Hie Jinja, Toyokawa Inari, Nogi Jinja, and Hikawa Jinja, which are all dedicated to Inari, at least in part, although each has its own distinctive areas of religious and cultural significance. The Yamanote neighborhood of Akasaka also contains the Aoyama Cemetery as well as dozens of smaller Buddhist temples, most of which function as graveyards while tucked away in alleys or street-side openings. When seen collectively as a network of sacred sites and associations in the social context of the High City, an examination of this area at once confirms and calls for a reassessment of the notion that Shinto exclusively represents rites for living and Buddhism only represents rites for dying. This chapter focuses attention on an underlying level of folk religiosity that sustains both institutional structures. This chapter weaves together a descriptive analysis of the historical and cultural background as well as contemporary functions and atmosphere of some of the main sacred sites in the neighborhood of Akasaka with a critical discussion of Japanese religious institutional structure. By examining a variety of shrines and temples that are prominent and not-so-prominent (but in their own way equally important for understanding the role of sacred space), this chapter explores the conundrum involving the particular type of religious pluralism whereby almost everyone in Japan considers themselves affiliated with both Buddhist and Shinto traditions, but very few acknowledge feeling much loyalty or commitment to a particular institution.

Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine demonstrates that evolutionary theory was never passively accepted, but played active and controversial roles in modern Japanese thought. Evolutionary theory was ...
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Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine demonstrates that evolutionary theory was never passively accepted, but played active and controversial roles in modern Japanese thought. Evolutionary theory was controversial and of a major concern to Japanese Buddhist, Shintō, Confucian, and Christian thinkers, who actively debated and contested the theory. As the Japanese redefined their relation to the world, to nature, and built a modern nation-state, evolutionary theory also became an intellectual battleground, and Japanese state ideology became increasingly hostile to evolutionary theory. Japanese intellectuals and religious thinkers actively and constructively, and often critically, appropriated evolutionary theory for a wide variety of ends, but the religious reception of evolution in Japan was dominated by a long and continuous fear of the idea of nature and society as a cold, materialist, world, governed by a mindless “struggle for survival.” This aversion engendered many religious thinkers, philosophers, and biologists, to find goodness, beauty, and the divine within nature and evolution itself. It was this drive that shaped much of Japan’s modern intellectual history, and changed Japanese understandings of nature, society, and the sacred.Less

Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine : Evolutionary Theory and Religion in Modern Japan

G. Clinton Godart

Published in print: 2017-01-31

Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine demonstrates that evolutionary theory was never passively accepted, but played active and controversial roles in modern Japanese thought. Evolutionary theory was controversial and of a major concern to Japanese Buddhist, Shintō, Confucian, and Christian thinkers, who actively debated and contested the theory. As the Japanese redefined their relation to the world, to nature, and built a modern nation-state, evolutionary theory also became an intellectual battleground, and Japanese state ideology became increasingly hostile to evolutionary theory. Japanese intellectuals and religious thinkers actively and constructively, and often critically, appropriated evolutionary theory for a wide variety of ends, but the religious reception of evolution in Japan was dominated by a long and continuous fear of the idea of nature and society as a cold, materialist, world, governed by a mindless “struggle for survival.” This aversion engendered many religious thinkers, philosophers, and biologists, to find goodness, beauty, and the divine within nature and evolution itself. It was this drive that shaped much of Japan’s modern intellectual history, and changed Japanese understandings of nature, society, and the sacred.

When Kannon (Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit) appears in multiple manifestations, the compassionate Buddhist deity’s magnificent powers are believed to increase to even greater heights. This book examines ...
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When Kannon (Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit) appears in multiple manifestations, the compassionate Buddhist deity’s magnificent powers are believed to increase to even greater heights. This book examines the development of sculptures, paintings, and prints associated with the cult of the Six Kannon, which began in Japan in the tenth century and remained strong until its transition, beginning in sixteenth century, to the still active Thirty-Three Kannon cult. The complete set of Six Kannon made in 1224 and housed at the Kyoto temple Daihōonji is an exemplar of the cult’s images. With a diachronic approach, beginning in the eleventh century, individual case studies are employed to reinstate a context for the sets of Six Kannon, the majority of which have been lost or scattered, in order to clarify the former vibrancy, magnitude, and distribution of the cult and enhance knowledge of religious image-making in Japan. While Kannon’s role of assisting beings trapped in the six paths of transmigration is a well-documented catalyst for the selection of six, there are other significant themes at work. Six Kannon worship includes worldly concerns like childbirth and animal husbandry, strong ties between text and image, and numerous cases of matching with Shinto kami groups of six.Less

Accounts and Images of Six Kannon in Japan

Sherry D. Fowler

Published in print: 2016-11-30

When Kannon (Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit) appears in multiple manifestations, the compassionate Buddhist deity’s magnificent powers are believed to increase to even greater heights. This book examines the development of sculptures, paintings, and prints associated with the cult of the Six Kannon, which began in Japan in the tenth century and remained strong until its transition, beginning in sixteenth century, to the still active Thirty-Three Kannon cult. The complete set of Six Kannon made in 1224 and housed at the Kyoto temple Daihōonji is an exemplar of the cult’s images. With a diachronic approach, beginning in the eleventh century, individual case studies are employed to reinstate a context for the sets of Six Kannon, the majority of which have been lost or scattered, in order to clarify the former vibrancy, magnitude, and distribution of the cult and enhance knowledge of religious image-making in Japan. While Kannon’s role of assisting beings trapped in the six paths of transmigration is a well-documented catalyst for the selection of six, there are other significant themes at work. Six Kannon worship includes worldly concerns like childbirth and animal husbandry, strong ties between text and image, and numerous cases of matching with Shinto kami groups of six.

Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843) has been the subject of numerous studies that focus on his importance to nationalist politics and Japanese intellectual and social history. Although well known as an ...
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Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843) has been the subject of numerous studies that focus on his importance to nationalist politics and Japanese intellectual and social history. Although well known as an ideologue of Japanese National Learning (Kokugaku), Atsutane’s significance as a religious thinker has been largely overlooked. This book focuses on Senkyō ibun (1822), which centers on Atsutane’s interviews with a fourteen-year-old Edo street urchin named Kozo Torakichi who claimed to be an apprentice tengu, a supernatural creature of Japanese folklore. It uncovers how Atsutane employed a deliberate method of ethnographic inquiry that worked to manipulate and stimulate Torakichi’s surreal descriptions of everyday existence in a supernatural realm, what Atsutane termed the Other World. The book begins with the hypothesis that Atsutane’s project was an early attempt at ethnographic research. A rough sketch of the milieu of 1820s Edo Japan and Atsutane’s position within it provides the backdrop against which the drama of Senkyō ibun unfolds. There follow chapters explaining the relationship between the implied author and the outside narrator, the Other World that Atsutane helped Torakichi describe, and Atsutane’s nativist discourse concerning Torakichi’s fantastic claims of a newly discovered Shinto holy man called the sanjin. Sanjin were seen as holders of secret and powerful technologies previously thought to have come from or been perfected in the West, such as geography, astronomy, and military technology. Finally, the book addresses Atsutane’s contribution to the construction of modern Japanese identity. The book counters the image of Atsutane as a forerunner of the ultra-nationalism that ultimately was deployed in the service of empire.Less

When Tengu Talk : Hirata Atsutane’s Ethnography of the Other World

Wilburn Hansen

Published in print: 2008-09-30

Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843) has been the subject of numerous studies that focus on his importance to nationalist politics and Japanese intellectual and social history. Although well known as an ideologue of Japanese National Learning (Kokugaku), Atsutane’s significance as a religious thinker has been largely overlooked. This book focuses on Senkyō ibun (1822), which centers on Atsutane’s interviews with a fourteen-year-old Edo street urchin named Kozo Torakichi who claimed to be an apprentice tengu, a supernatural creature of Japanese folklore. It uncovers how Atsutane employed a deliberate method of ethnographic inquiry that worked to manipulate and stimulate Torakichi’s surreal descriptions of everyday existence in a supernatural realm, what Atsutane termed the Other World. The book begins with the hypothesis that Atsutane’s project was an early attempt at ethnographic research. A rough sketch of the milieu of 1820s Edo Japan and Atsutane’s position within it provides the backdrop against which the drama of Senkyō ibun unfolds. There follow chapters explaining the relationship between the implied author and the outside narrator, the Other World that Atsutane helped Torakichi describe, and Atsutane’s nativist discourse concerning Torakichi’s fantastic claims of a newly discovered Shinto holy man called the sanjin. Sanjin were seen as holders of secret and powerful technologies previously thought to have come from or been perfected in the West, such as geography, astronomy, and military technology. Finally, the book addresses Atsutane’s contribution to the construction of modern Japanese identity. The book counters the image of Atsutane as a forerunner of the ultra-nationalism that ultimately was deployed in the service of empire.

The aim of this book is to understand the history of an enduring ideal of Shinto. In this ideal, a divinely descended ruler governs through rituals for deities called Kami. A priestly order assists ...
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The aim of this book is to understand the history of an enduring ideal of Shinto. In this ideal, a divinely descended ruler governs through rituals for deities called Kami. A priestly order assists the sovereign by coordinating Kami ritual in shrines across the realm, so that shrine rites mirror the monarch’s ceremonies. Through the power of solemn rituals and joyous festivals, the priesthood unites the people with imperial rule. The Kami bless and protect the people, who attain their greatest self-realization through fulfilling their obligations to the collective. Through this theater of state, the human, natural, and supernatural worlds align in perfect harmony and prosper. The book seeks to understand this ideal’s historical origins, development, affective dimensions, and potential to motivate action. The constituent elements of the ideal of Shinto emerged gradually. They include changing concepts of Kami, associations between imperial rule and ritual, a government unit devoted to coordinating ritual throughout the nation’s shrines, a code of law mandating an annual calendar of Kami ritual, the claim that rituals for the Kami are public in character, and the assertion that this complex of ideas and institutions embodies Japan’s “indigenous” tradition. Shinto is often called “the indigenous religion of Japan,” but arguments concerning both its religiosity and its indigeneity are central to its history. The book investigates claims about Shinto as the embodiment of indigenous tradition, and assertions about its rightful place in the public realm, focusing on these debates and the modern controversies regarding whether Shinto should be considered a religion, not to answer these questions but instead to explain their religious, political, and social significance.Less

Shinto

Helen Hardacre

Published in print: 2017-01-05

The aim of this book is to understand the history of an enduring ideal of Shinto. In this ideal, a divinely descended ruler governs through rituals for deities called Kami. A priestly order assists the sovereign by coordinating Kami ritual in shrines across the realm, so that shrine rites mirror the monarch’s ceremonies. Through the power of solemn rituals and joyous festivals, the priesthood unites the people with imperial rule. The Kami bless and protect the people, who attain their greatest self-realization through fulfilling their obligations to the collective. Through this theater of state, the human, natural, and supernatural worlds align in perfect harmony and prosper. The book seeks to understand this ideal’s historical origins, development, affective dimensions, and potential to motivate action. The constituent elements of the ideal of Shinto emerged gradually. They include changing concepts of Kami, associations between imperial rule and ritual, a government unit devoted to coordinating ritual throughout the nation’s shrines, a code of law mandating an annual calendar of Kami ritual, the claim that rituals for the Kami are public in character, and the assertion that this complex of ideas and institutions embodies Japan’s “indigenous” tradition. Shinto is often called “the indigenous religion of Japan,” but arguments concerning both its religiosity and its indigeneity are central to its history. The book investigates claims about Shinto as the embodiment of indigenous tradition, and assertions about its rightful place in the public realm, focusing on these debates and the modern controversies regarding whether Shinto should be considered a religion, not to answer these questions but instead to explain their religious, political, and social significance.